


Of Tackling and Following

by orphan_account



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 11:37:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Fitz and Lizzie talk on Thanksgiving</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>The one where Lizzie follows Darcy on twitter</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Tackling and Following

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago, so it's been canonballed from ep67 on. Slightly AU since Lizzie "meets" Gigi earlier than expected.

The day Lizzie follows Darcy on twitter is the day after Thanksgiving. She's been spending a crazy amount of time with her sisters and family and can't help but wonder what other people are doing at the time. She knows that Bing and Caroline are spending it in Miami with their mother and she knows that Darcy is not with them. Which leads her to wonder where exactly William Darcy spends his Thanksgiving. She never imagines him with family. If she has to admit it, she always thinks of him alone in a huge apartment, somewhere in San Francisco. But Fitz had mentioned a sister (named Gigi? She can't imagine someone being related to Darcy being named Gigi. But all she had heard of this Gigi Darcy is that she is one of the nicest people around, adored her brother, and apparently had bad taste in men. But Lizzie had nearly made the same mistake Gigi was, so she doesn't judge her for her past relationship with a certain swimmer). The fact remains that Lizzie rarely thinks of Darcy actually having a life. Though, occasionally, she ponders on this mentioned sister and imagines Darcy as a boy, playing dolls with her and being over-protective. It helps humanize him in her eyes. Even after his disastrous confession of love, Lizzie often finds it hard to believe that he is actually a person. Every time she thinks this, her mind brings her back to her small office in Collins & Collins, where she saw his eyes cloud over in pain after she so cruelly rejected him. Try as she might, she can't get the image of Darcy's heart breaking in front of her out of her mind's eye. That doesn't make her like him any more-- after all, nothing could-- but she is nearly positive that the memory would stick with her. 

 

 

She's avoiding the cooking drama downstairs when Fitz calls.

"Yo, Lizzie B!" his voice calls through the phone and she can hear something like the clattering of pans in the background. She swore she heard Caroline's voice too, but ignores it.

"Hey, Fitz!" she says back happily. She hasn't talked to Fitz in weeks, it feels like, and it's nice to hear his chipper voice.

"Happy turkey day!" he shouts and she has to put the phone away from her ear. "You're on speaker phone, by the way."

"Happy Thanksgiving to you too," she responds, just as enthusiastically. More sounds in the background come through the receiver. "Everything all right over there?"

"Oh, yeah," Fitz says, now distracted. "Bing and Car-- No, Gigi, do not touch my pie!-- Sorry. Bing and Caroline's mom has a new boyfriend who didn't even know she had kids so they showed up and he freaked. Their mom thought they were going to their dad's and vice versa. Lots and lots of drama. Long story short, Bing, Caroline, and I are spending Thankgiving Casa Darcy."

"Darcy?" asks Lizzie incredulously. There's a huge crash in the background and she hears distant voices yelling. She fights the urge to laugh. 

"Georgiana Darcy!" she hears an oh so familiar voice come through the receiver. It's William Darcy himself, yelling at his sister playfully-- Darcy? Playfully? What is happening? "Fitz, I told you not to let her near the turkey!"

"Sorry, man," Fitz says and his voice is much clearer now. "I'm talking to Lizzie."

Lizzie waits to hear cries of shock or disbelief. Anything really, but there's radio silence on the other end. 

She hears a very soft, "Oh," coming from Darcy and then a, "Oh my god, Lizzie Bennet?"

She doesn't recognize this new voice but she is certain it is the famed Gigi. 

"You are talking to the Lizzie Bennet and you didn't tell me?" the voice yells and she hears a muffled groan. "Relax, Will, I just want to meet her."

Lizzie has never heard anyone call Darcy Will before and it feels weird and wrong and she feels even worse for how she treated him. Will is a person, with a sister, parents, a life, and feelings. Darcy is a rude, arrogant robot that she can't stand.

"No! Fitz, don't give her the phone!" says Darcy and Lizzie can hear him clearly now. She's gotten over the fact that Darcy is there and now concentrating on trying not to make it obvious she's laughing at the commotion.

"I got you, man!" Fitz calls back. "Sorry, Lizzie. Currently being chased by two very angry Darcy siblings. Gigi dropped the turkey. Caroline's trying to fix it but now Gigi wants to talk to you and Darcy doesn't want you to meet her and it's kinda crazy over here."

"I can tell," she says with barely concealed humor. "Darcy's sister knows who I am?"

"Yeah, she watches your videos. She loves you!" comes Fitz's reply.

"She watches my videos?" asks Lizzie slowly, worry creeping through her. Fitz is quick to correct her.

"She just started watching them," he says carefully.

"So, up until when?"

"Um, she's at when you just arrived at Collins & Collins."

"So not…"

"No, she hasn't 'met' Darcy yet," and Lizzie can picture his quotation marks. "Oh, crap, they found me!"

"Found you?" she asks, confused.

"I'm in the closet hiding," says Fitz simply.

"Ah," says Lizzie, understanding. 

"Give me a sec." 

She hears rustling on the other side and a triumphant "Ha!" then Fitz's "Damn it!"

"Give me the phone, Williams," she hears Gigi say. 

"Nope!" says Fitz and she hears more rustling. She assumes Gigi tried to make a grab for the phone.

"Lizzie!" she hears Gigi call. "Oh my god, I love your videos! You're so fun--" but she's interrupted by a loud thud.

"William!" says Gigi's more distant voice, shock clearly showing.

"Holy guacamole, Darcy just tackled Gigi," says Fitz, disbelieving. Lizzie can't believe it. Darcy? Tackling his sister? She scoffs.

"You're lying," she says, rolling her eyes. There's no way Darcy would ever tackle anyone.

"No, he's not!" says a very muffled female voice.

"Gigi, you are not to talk to Lizzie. Ever!" says Darcy pointedly and Lizzie finds herself blushing for no particular. 

"Why, Will?" she asks pleadingly. Lizzie suddenly feels like she's intruding and she whispers this to Fitz. 

"Okay, we'll go back into the kitchen. Hopefully the turkey's still intact," he complies and leaves the feuding siblings.

"Are they like that all the time?" Lizzie asks in a small voice.

"Gigi and Will?" Fitz asks, then answers his own question. "Yeah, basically. Gigi's had a bit of champagne already so she's a bit more silly than usual, but Darcy's usually like that with her. They're super close now."

"Why do you switch between Will and Darcy?" she finds herself asking.

"Usually we call him Will when with friends and family but when I talk to you, he's Darcy. It's like a nickname," replies Fitz and Lizzie still can't imagine Darcy being Will.

"Gigi used to call him Willy," he continues. "But that stopped once she hit high school and he went to college."

"How long have you known them?"

"I went to the same high school as Darcy, so a while. Gigi was ten when I met her." 

They lapse into a comfortable silence wherein Lizzie wonders what a teenage Darcy was like. They're interrupted by Jane calling her from downstairs. Lydia got into the alcoholic cider stash and their mother his still moaning about how none of them have boyfriends to bring home for the holidays. They need reinforcements and Lizzie relates this back to Fitz.

"I'll let you deal with your family fiasco while I deal with whatever Gigi and Will got up to," says Fitz. "I'll talk to you later, Lizzie B."

"Bye, Fitz," she says and ends the call.

"Lizzie!" Jane calls again and she heads downstairs to whatever is waiting for her. 

 

 

"You seem preoccupied," notes Jane while they're washing dishes after dinner. Lizzie looks up from the plate she's been washing for five minutes.

"Do I?" she asks distractedly and Jane raises an eyebrow. "I had an… interesting call with Fitz earlier."

"Oh?" says Jane as she hands glass to Lizzie to put in the dishwasher.

"Yeah," and she has to think for a moment for what to say. "He, Bing and Caroline were spending Thanksgiving at the Darcy's."

"That is interesting," her sister says, intrigued.

"It was… weird. I mean, they were all so comfortable with each other. Bickering and chasing around the house. I kind of met Darcy's sister."

"His sister?" Jane asks, surprised.

"She watches my videos," she tries to say casually.

"Has she seen them all?"

"No, not the one where… When he… When I…" but she can't find it in herself to finish the sentence. Jane nods understandably. "She and Darcy were so… familial."

"They are family," says Janes, smiling softly at her sister. "How do you mean?"

"There was drama without the turkey and they were playing around and playing with each other. It was so… I don't know. I just didn't imagine her being like that or Darcy being like that with her."

"That sounds pretty normal," Jane says. 

"Yeah…" They return to silence and washing the dishes.

 

 

The next day, Lizzie is getting ready to post her next video. As she does before each one, she looks briefly through her twitter feed to see if anything important happened with her friends that's worth mentioning. Mostly, it's just well-wishes and expressions of thanks after the holiday. One tweet stops her mindless scrolling. 

Had a spectac turkey day with @wmdarcy @ggdarcy @that_caroline @bingliest

It's from Fitz and accompanied by a photo of the clan in the kitchen, covering in food and wearing aprons. She gets her first look at Gigi. She's has short brown hair and warm brown eyes. A large smile spreads across her face and there's cranberry sauce and gravy smudged on her apron. Bing is grinning widely, not caring that he has spinach in his hair and Caroline is spotlessly clean, hair perfect as ever. Fitz has a hat shaped like a turkey on his head and is looking cross-eyed at the camera. Finally, her eyes rest on Darcy. He's wearing a lime green apron that has what looks like the entire contents of a pumpkin pie on his apron and in his hair. His grey-blue eyes are bright and his mouth is stretched in a large smile. So much for smiling contorts the face, Lizzie thinks. She clicks on the link that sends her to Darcy's feed. There are several conversations with Bing, Caroline, Fitz and Gigi. Mostly, they're just inside jokes, planning and checking up on each other. A couple ones about workload and being busy are thrown in. Her heart nearly falls to her stomach when she reads one. 

Heading to @Collins&Collins for consulting. Will hopefully gather some courage.

Fitz, Bing and Gigi all favorited it.

Courage. To tell her how he feels. Her mood is instantly wrecked. She notices that there weren't a lot of tweets after that. A couple mention heading to LA to visit Bing and Caroline and they only really pick up a month after the tweet about Collins & Collins. She scrolls to the top and is faced with the picture on Thanksgiving again. Sighing, she stares at their happy faces. She's never seen him smile like that. She thinks he actually looks a bit handsome, but immediately banishes the thought from her head, cursing herself for even thinking it. 

Lizzie hovers her mouse over the follow button and sighs. It's perfectly understandable if you want to know what's going on in his life, she tells herself. What if he takes it the wrong way? But then rolls her eyes are herself. How could he? You rejected him in front of thousands of people. 

She clicks the button without thinking.

Suddenly she feels the weight of what she did crash down on her. Right now, there is a notification sending that says @thelizziebennet is now following him. She can't undo it. He'll know she did it at one point or another. Tearing her eyes away, she picked up her phone. Dialing the familiar number, she waited for the world to implode at her actions. Nothing happened and the person on the other end picked up.

"Charlotte? We need to talk." The green button that read following stared back at her.


End file.
